The Blood Barrier
by HeadinthClouds
Summary: Darien's a vampire and Serena is his prey, but he doesn't want it that way. Yeah, bad summary. Let me know what you think!
1. The Vampire

( This is written with the names of the dubbed version, since I know them best. I guess it takes place before Serena knows Darien, so.she's not Sailor Moon yet, though we get to that. ()  
  
Disclaimer- I do not own Sailor Moon, and am not in any way associated with the creators. This is just for fun.  
  
Serena and Mena giggled as they slapped brown paint on the wooden coffin. Lita grinned and peaked out at them from inside the coffin, which she was painting black.  
  
" You know you two sound like hyenas?" she teased. Serena stopped laughing long enough to say, " You got paint on your jeans."  
  
Lita looked down at herself and saw a black smear on her blue pants. She closed her eyes, imagined it was gone, and looked again. Nope. Still there. " Oh, shit!" she cursed, throwing down her paint brush. Her friends stared at her with wide eyes. Lita sighed. " Sorry. These were my good jeans! They were supposed to last me the rest of the week!"  
  
Mena smiled at her. " Go wash it out. We'll cover for you." she whispered secretively. Lita smiled back wearily and ran out into the hall. Serena looked around the coffin at Mena.  
  
" We can't cover for her. Someone's gonna' notice that one of us is missing." She pointed out.  
  
Mena shrugged. " We'll tell them the truth. She had an emergency and had to run for the bathroom." The two girls cracked up and resumed covering the light brown wood with brown paint.  
  
Serena, Mena, and Lita were first time members of the high school stage crew, which was putting together the set for Dracula. It hadn't been to productive at first; everybody assumed the three girls could do little. What with Lita threatening anyone who looked at her cross-eyed, and the two blondes spent most of the time joking and talking. Eventually, they proved that they could be useful if somebody would give them jobs to do.  
  
" You kids doing okay with the coffin?" Mr. Inick, the stage crew manager, came up behind Serena. The two girls turned around, grinning brightly.  
  
" Yes sir!" Mena saluted him. Mr. Inick examined the coffin walls.  
  
" Hmm, good, good." He nodded. " May I make a suggestion? Try to streak the brown with black, to give it a woodsy, coffee-table look. Like this." He took Lita's brush and gently worked thin black lines onto the brown background. Serena and Mena watched closely and nodded. He handed them Lita's brush and walked away, then stopped.  
  
" Hey...wait, weren't there three of you? Where's the other girl?" he looked around curiously. Lita popped out from behind a pile of wood scraps.  
  
" I'm right here." she chimed sweetly. Mr. Inick looked closely at her; her brown hair, pulled back into a tight ponytail, was coming loose, her face was flushed, and her left leg was soaking wet around the bottom. He shook his head and walked away; he'd been with the stage crew long enough to know not to ask.  
  
" Get it out?" Serena asked Lita, who was returning to her post.  
  
" A little. It's better now, but you can still see the black line." She explained. Serena looked down at Lita's leg and tried not to laugh. Lita shoved her friend away. " Shut up, Serena. Or I'll put paint on you." Her voice was threatening, but her face was smiling.  
  
" Hey girls. Finished yet?" the student crew manager, Darien, walked over and looked the coffin up and down.  
  
" Almost." Mena replied, intently examining her work. Darien flipped the hammer in his hand and caught it with the other.  
  
" You've been working on one little paint job for almost two hours, and you're still not done?" he smirked. Lita stared at him indignantly.  
  
" Hey, this isn't easy. It needs two coats of brown and black..." she retorted, and Mena cut in. " And the wood touch thing." Darien shrugged.  
  
" Not to insult you or anything, but if an experienced crew member was doing this, it'd be done in half the time it took you." He said coolly. Lita handed her brush to Serena.  
  
" Okay, you wanna' take it outside?" she asked, clenched fists and everything.  
  
Darien laughed and shook his head. " Silly little girls. Just get it done sometime today." He flipped his hammer again and walked off.  
  
Later, after stage crew ended, the three girls headed into town for smoothies.  
  
" That Darien guy is sooo creepy!" Mena shuddered. Lita rolled her eyes.  
  
" No he's not, Mena. He's actually really hot. He just....thinks...differently." she argued. Serena laughed and nodded.  
  
" 'Differently' is saying it politely. He spends most of his time there in the shadows. Have you ever noticed most of his work is done beneath the set?" she pointed out.  
  
Mena spun around on the sidewalk. " No, I never paid much attention, Sah-reee-na!"  
  
Serena blushed and stuck out her tongue as she shook her head. " Ewww, never imply that again! I'm just an observant person."  
  
Lita leaned closer to Mena, grinning. " Observant my foot." They giggled and walked into the smoothie shop.  
  
The night of the performance, neither Lita nor Mena could make it. Lita had a doctor's appointment in another city, and Mena was going to see a musical with her family. So Serena was all alone to work the double doors that let the actors off and on the set. She showed Vinny how to do Lita's job- the smoke machine and the little bat- and showed Trent how to do Mena's job- break the mirror and push the coffin out. Other than that, she was all alone. She climbed up the steps behind the scenes, in the blue light. Jenni, the prop director, decided not to bother her. The whole crew knew how lonely Serena was without Lita and Mena.  
  
" But she should do something. Sweep the floor, dust the bookcase, something!" Rei, the leading actress, pointed out to Jenni.  
  
" I know. But she just looks so miserable. It's such a contrast from the other day." Jenni shrugged. Rei nodded and picked up her long white dress. Darien, wearing his headset to give cues, called everyone to the set to receive end-of-the-season gifts. Serena, afraid of being told off for not working, didn't show up. Instead, she slipped around the curtain into the auditorium, and sat below the stage. She listened as everyone's name was called. She heard hers vaguely, but then they gave up on her and moved on. When the group disbanded, she heard crew people coming her way and ran back behind the curtain, to the backstage. Paranoid, she looked for a hiding spot. The only place she could think of us under the set, but crew people were down there. The voices got closer. Desperately, Serena moved up between the stairs the curtain, and pressed herself against the dark blue fabric. Darien made his way behind the curtain, and saw her there, looking ill.  
  
" Hey Serena. We couldn't find you earlier. This is for you." He handed her a paint brush, a nice wooden one with soft bristles and her name on the smooth handle. " We know you joined just for the painting, so it's our gift to you..." Serena stared at the paintbrush, said a barely audible thank you, and wanted to cry. It certainly was a nice brush, but another note, it was like a bribe to do stage crew again. " Are you okay?" Darien touched her shoulder lightly. Serena suddenly felt terribly sick and began to shake. She looked up at him. For a fleeting second, he didn't look the handsome, calm guy in charge of the stage crew. His teeth looked sharper, his eyes were darker, and he looked pale even in the dark.  
  
" Yeah, I'm okay." She hurried away, over to her post by the doors. Shaking, she put on her headsets and sat down on her stool. Vinny and Trent sat on the ground around her.  
  
" So Serena, you gonna' be able to do the fire stuff without your friends here? Trent asked slyly. Serena groaned inwardly. Trent had been after Mena's other job, lighting the fire on the set with a remote control, but Serena had claimed it. She nodded tensely, not willing to talk to the guys who had stolen her friend's places.  
  
" Okay, I want Act 1, Scene 1, before the audience comes in!" the director shouted.  
  
" Darien, cue when you're ready." Jenni whispered into the headsets. No answer. " Darien?"  
  
" Darien's not on yet. He went back to the SCUM room to get another script. We're missing one." Robby, the lighting technician, answered. The cast and crew waited patiently for a few minutes. Then the director began to get mad.  
  
" I thought I said to do Act 1, Scene 1! That means now, people, now!" she hollered. Rei, covered in silky white fabric, walked over to Serena.  
  
" Hey, Serena, you seen Darien? He's not answering on the headsets." She asked. Serena shook her head. " No, not for awhile. You want me to go look?"  
  
" Yes, Serena, why don't you? Here, I'll take the headsets for you." Trent offered, grinning. Rolling her eyes, Serena handed the headsets over and walked away.  
  
Behind the sets, it was pitch black. Serena held her arms out in front of her so she could feel her way to the SCUM room. From somewhere in the dark, she could hear ragged breathing.  
  
" Darien?" she called cautiously. The dark was so intense, she couldn't even make out a shadow. Instead, she followed the sound. " Darien, are you okay?" Once her eyes adjusted, she could make out a figure curled up on the ground. She recognized Darien's jacket even in the inky black, and hurried to him.  
  
" What happened?" she asked in a worried but hushed voice. She could hear the actors starting without them.  
  
" No, go away!" Darien hissed. His voice was strangely drained, like it was all he could do to speak. Serena reached for his hand to lead him back to Mr. Inick. As soon as she touched his flesh, she felt his temperature drop to a freezing degree. Startled, Serena yanked her hand back to get help, but Darien grabbed it and kept her there.  
  
" I've gone so long without any...." He started, a note of deep regret in his dead voice. Serena began to feel genuinely scared. " Please forgive me for this."  
  
He looked up and Serena gasped. Darien's skin was dead white, she could see his face clearly in the shadows. His eyes were dark holes, sunken shadows in his dead skin. Shiny white fangs protruded form his mouth. He grasped Serena with both of his freezing hands and pulled her closer.  
  
" No." Serena tried to say, beginning to fight. But then she felt the teeth on her neck, and felt a moment of pain as they broke the soft skin, and then she couldn't feel anything at all.  
  
( So, how'd you like it? Please R&R!) 


	2. Explanations

( Thanks to a spell check by a kind reviewer, I realized I spelled Mina's name wrong- Mina, not Mena. Just to let you know! Also, the front of the set is two levels high. The bottom is the floor. The stairs going up lead to a landing, where a daybed is, then another set of stairs lead up to the hall, or the second level, with two walls on either end hiding the stairs to exit.)  
  
Serena opened her eyes slowly, and suddenly felt a heavy pressure inside her head. She was staring up at the light, that much she knew. Where was she? What happened? Where was Darien?  
  
" Serena, are you okay?" a voice asked. Squinting, Serena could make out Jenni's face. Behind her was the entire cast and crew, along with Mr. Inick. Jenni helped Serena sit up, and handed her a glass of water. Serena drank it slowly, aware that maybe she should be feeling pain in her neck, but not feeling any. She looked around, and realized she was sitting on the set, on the daybed on the second floor.  
  
" I'm fine." Serena assured them all, then looked to Jenni. " What happened?"  
  
Jenni sat down on the steps by the daybed. " Well, they decided to start the scene without Darien on headsets. We were halfway through when Trent came over and told me the actors were having to manually open the doors themselves. I asked him why you weren't opening the doors for them, and he said you weren't there. So I went over to look for you, and Rei told me you had gone to find Darien. She told me you went back behind the set, so I went back there. And halfway through, I tripped on something, looked down, and saw you laying there. You were unconscious. So that's my story. I don't know why you were like that. What's your version?"  
  
Serena put a hand to her head. She remembered what happened. Darien bit her neck and now it was numb. But why? " Well, I went back to find Darien, and....." she looked up then, and saw Darien sitting behind the light switch table. He looked perfectly normal. She jumped up and grabbed Jenni's hand.  
  
" What's wrong?" Jenni asked, alarmed. Serena jumped down behind the set, pulling Jenni with her. She looked around to make sure nobody was back there, then told Jenni her story.  
  
" I went back to find Darien, and I did! Except, he was lying on the ground. I went over to see if he was all right, but he looked at me, he looked really scary. His face was all white and his eye were black and he had fangs! Then he...bit me on the neck and..." Serena slowed down, hearing how ridiculous her story actually sounded. Jenni, normally very serious about everything, smiled, and even started to laugh.  
  
" I can see where this is going." She stated, waggling her finger up and down. " Too much Dracula, right? I mean, we're here almost the whole week, it's too much theater for all of us. But you know, Serena, it's just a story. The author based most of the gruesome stuff on, well, gruesome stuff, but not the way it happened in Dracula. It's really just make- be....." Furious, Serena cut her off.  
  
" No! It's true! Darien's a vampire, I saw it! He had fangs and everything!" she spoke in a loud whisper. Jenni was doing all she could to stay on her feet and laugh at the same time.  
  
" Sure, Serena. I can see it now." she moved her arms in front of her, pretending to visualize titles. " 'Count Darien.' It'll be a huge hit. A normal teenage boy is actually a blood thirsty vampire, preying on the poor lives in the stage crew!" Jenni lost control and sat down hard, her sides shaking. Serena gave a frustrated groan, and stomped away. She sat down at the double doors, and Mr. Inick approached her.  
  
" Serena, um...I don't know what happened, but if you want to go home, you can. I'll have Joe take your place, he's willing to learn." He told her slowly. Grateful, Serena smiled weakly at him.  
  
" Thank you, Mr. Inick. I'll go call my mom." She got up and went out the back door, escaping into the cool, biting, end-of-fall air. The trees surrounded this particular door, shadowing Serena in the already dark night, and she trotted across the pavement courtyard to the school entrance. Inside, half the school was dark. A few clubs were pulling their meetings to a close, night classes were halfway through, the janitors were finishing up. Yet down by the visitor entrance, there was a loud commotion as crowds came in to see Dracula.  
  
Serena walked to the pay phone and called her house.  
  
" Hello?" Mrs. Tsukino answered the phone.  
  
" Hi Mom, it's me. Um, the play was canceled for tonight, can you pick me up?" she didn't want her mother to know the real reason she was coming home.  
  
" All right. By the visitor entrance?" Mrs. Tsukino asked wearily, wondering where to pick Serena up. Serena figured there'd be too many people, and told her mother to get her in front of the school. Mrs. Tsukino agreed, and they hung up.  
  
Feeling suddenly free and just a little tired, Serena stepped outside. The front of the school was a huge entrance of four double doors and huge white pillars. Below the cement steps leading to the doors was a long cement courtyard, leading down to the sidewalk. Across the street were houses, a tiny sleeping neighborhood. Serena leaned against a pillar and closed her eyes, thinking about what had happened.  
  
" Hey." Serena spun around, and came face to face with, none other then, Darien. He looked healthy and just as he had every other time Serena had seen him. But this time, Serena felt a warning sting on her neck, and she instinctively backed away.  
  
" What do you want?" she asked coldly, resisting the urge to put her hand to her neck. Darien shrugged.  
  
" I just wanted to apologize. I didn't want to drink your blood, but I was panicking. And when I'm coming undone like that, I don't always think straight." He looked almost pained, and Serena softened up.  
  
" Coming undone?" she asked curiously. Darien nodded.  
  
" Yeah. When I have substantial blood, I look perfectly normal. Like this. But when I'm low on blood, my vampire traits start to become obvious. When I have no blood left, I'm completely in my vampire form, and I can be pretty dangerous." He explained.  
  
Serena thought it was a nice warning for him to tell her that. " How do you get enough blood?" she asked, very interested now. Darien half grinned.  
  
" Usually, I drink animal blood. I try not to attack the same animal more than twice, or I get hooked on their blood and want to keep taking it until they die of blood loss. I'm supposed to drink human blood, but I think it's a little less cannibalistic if I drink animal blood instead. But if I go too long without human blood, I start to come undone anyway, since animal blood doesn't cover me as long." He leaned against the opposite pillar and smiled. " Any more questions?"  
  
Serena blushed, then nodded. " Have you always been a vampire?" Darien shook his head.  
  
" No. I used to be normal. When I was ten, I went camping with some other kids, and we explored a bat cave. I don't know why, but one bat decided to bite me. The other kids said it was a vampire bat, but I didn't believe them." He approached Serena, tugged at his shirt collar, and showed her two scarlet marks on his shoulder. " That's where it bit me. After that, my blood just dried up inside me, not that I realized it at the time. So I became blood thirsty and that's how I started my career as a vampire."  
  
A car horn honked below them, and Serena began to walk away. " That's my mom. I gotta' go. Nice talking to you, Darien." She called as she climbed in the car. He waved to her and walked inside.  
  
The next day, Serena went over to Lita's house to do a cooking project for school.  
  
" Hey Serena! How'd the play go?" Lita asked upon Serena' arrival.  
  
Serena grinned proudly." I didn't stay for it. Mr. Inick told me I could go home."  
  
Lita laughed. " Are you that troublesome? And I thought the three of us were....Serena!" Lita stared at Serena in horror. Serena stared back, surprised.  
  
" What?" she asked. Lita pointed to Serena's neck.  
  
" You have a spider bite!" she cried. Serena, not being a fan of spiders, jumped up and being going, " Ohh, ohhh, ohhh! How disgusting!" she slapped at her neck and felt two bumps. And then she remembered.  
  
" Oh, Lita. This isn't a spider bite." She immediately calmed down. Lita stopped jumping.  
  
" It's not?" she asked, unsure. Serena nodded.  
  
" Yeah. It's a vampire bite. I got last night, that's why I could go home." She explained. Lita twisted her face into a confused expression. A vampire bite? Had the play gotten to Serena that much? The tall brunette took Serena's hand to lead her into the kitchen. " Serena, I think I'll make some tea. We'll sit down and talk about vampires before we start cooking, okay?"  
  
Serena yanked her hand free. " No, it's true! Darien's a vampire, and last night he was coming undone, and I found him first, so he drank my blood!"  
  
Lita scratched her head. " You sound proud of that. Serena, don't say stuff like that, I bet Darien wouldn't like it if he heard from someone else that he was a vampire."  
  
Serena stomped her foot hard, making her blond odangos wobble. " No, it's true! He knows he's one, he told me so!" Lita pushed Serena onto the couch and headed towards the kitchen.  
  
" Serena, you just....stay there. Don't move. You might further add to your serious head injury. I'll make you some hot chocolate, okay? Would you like that? And then we'll start on the cooking project. Just, don't move." Lita continued backing away until she was completely in the next room, and then she busied herself making hot chocolate.  
  
The next night, Serena sat in her room reading comics. She didn't notice her window open, or the fog in the room. She didn't realize anything was wrong until the lights went off.  
  
" Hey, Sammy!" Serena slammed down her comic book, then froze. The room was illuminated by the moon outside, so that an eerie glow fell on everything. Except for a tall shadow at the foot of Serena's bed.  
  
" Blood, I need it now." came the raspy voice. Glowing white fingers lifted away the hood, and Darien's face a revealed. It was worse then the last time Serena had seen it like this. The skin, still bright white, was tight around the facial bones and getting tighter by the minute. Darien was turning into a skeleton of a vampire right in front of her! Noiselessly, he made his way to Serena, and sat down next to her.  
  
Serena, though scared, felt strangely calm at the same time. It was almost like this was no big deal. But why was he back for her blood? Darien the person and Darien the vampire are mentally two different people, Serena reminded herself.  
  
Darien grinned darkly, and turned her face away from him so the bitten side of her neck was exposed. " You'll be like me if this keeps up." He choked out, and his mouth came down over her neck.  
  
Serena had a draining feeling, like suddenly her body was completely dry, but it didn't feel bad. She almost wanted to be completely dry. Darien released her, and Serena watched his face go back to normal.  
  
" That was quick." Serena commented, feeling drowsy. Darien put his normal colored hands to his face, checking to make sure it was better.  
  
" That's all it takes." He replied. Serena smiled at him with sleepy eyes. He smiled back, and suddenly bent down and kissed her. Their lips locked, and suddenly everything was warm, and then Darien was gone. 


	3. Discovery

( Sorry I haven't updated in awhile! School's been keeping me so busy.)  
  
Luckily, Lita and Mina both could make it to the second performance. Serena was very relieved, since she was a little nervous about facing Darien again. It was just a stupid kiss, she told herself. It happens all the time. But she couldn't stop thinking about it.  
  
" So, did you survive without us?" Mina asked Serena that night behind the set. Serena smiled.  
  
" Yup. I even got to go home." She whispered, trying not to let anyone else know she was happy about it. Vinny and Trent had been removed from the backstage due to Lita's and Mina's return. Mina laughed.  
  
As Serena was fitting on her headsets, Rei wandered over. " Hey, any of you know where my veil is?" she asked. The three girls shook there heads. Sighing, Rei leaned close to Serena, turned on the headsets, and said, " Hey, anyone seen my veil?" Everyone answered no, and Rei stomped off.  
  
" What's this?" Kacey, the evil student director, walked up to the wall of the set. She peeked through a square hole, rolled her eyes, and walked away.  
  
" Isn't that the mirror hole?" Lita asked. Serena gasped excitedly, and beckoned for Lita and Mina to come closer. She turned up the volumn of the headsets so they could also hear.  
  
" Hey Josh. Did you see Kacey look through that hole in the set?" someone asked.  
  
" What hole in the set? I don't see a hole. I'm seriously not seeing a...oooooh, shit!" Josh cursed. " Darien, there's a hole in the set!"  
  
" A hole in the set?"  
  
" Yeah, right there! Kacey just looked through it!"  
  
" Damn! Well, fill it up!"  
  
" With what?" Lita, trying not to laugh, said, " With Kacey's ass." The three girls erupted in giggles.  
  
" Girls, we can hear you." Darien said in to his headset. The girls shut up. " Turn off you headsets and continue." Serena hit the button on the on/off/volumn button, and sighed.  
  
" Lita, you freak." She shook her head. Lita laughed soundly, and was shushed by other crew members.  
  
During intermission, the cast ran into the dressing room and the crew was allowed to wander. Serena broke away from her friends and found Darien by the light controls, making sure everything was set.  
  
" Hi Darien." She greeted him, trying to be casual. Darien looked up, grabbed her arm, and pulled her back into the SCUM room. It was tiny room, full of paint brushes and nails and hammers and other equipment. There was a dusty mirror on the wall, and Serena noticed that Darien carefully avoided it.  
  
" Lock your bedroom window!" He hissed. Serena stared at him, and he continued. " If you don't lock it, it's possible that I'll come back for your blood. And then you might die!"  
  
" But you said last night that I'll be like you soon." Serena protested. Half of her didn't want Darien to stop coming. He looked pained.  
  
" It's a very lonely life. Vampires live for centuries. I haven't been able to control myself as a fully-transformed vampire yet. I assume that I'm looking for someone to spend the years with me." He put a hand to his forehead and groaned.  
  
Serena felt somewhat flattered. He wanted to spend centuries with her? " I don't mind." She told him honestly. Darien opened his eyes, both bloodshot.  
  
" Yes you do!"  
  
" How do you become a vampire as opposed to dying?"  
  
" You can only become a vampire when a vampire bat bites you. I can only kill you. But I can call vampire bats to me as a full vampire."  
  
" You can prevent yourself from becoming a full vampire, right?"  
  
" Yes, but it hasn't been easy, lately. I haven't had much time to find blood. And....." Suddenly, Darien stopped. He stood still a moment, looking confused. Then he started making a choking sound. Serena backed away instinctively, alarmed by his behavior. When he stopped, she relaxed. " Don't worry, it'll take awhile for me transform fully." Serena winced, and pointed at his mouth. Two fangs sprouted from his row of teeth. His eyes were darker too, though not the black coals Serena was used to seeing.  
  
" Hey Serena, where did Vinny.....?" Kacey walked up. She saw Draien, stared, and screamed bloody murder.  
  
" Kacey, no!" Serena cried. Kacey ran towards the curtain, screaming " Vampire! Vampire!" Heads turned, mostly laughing and not believing, but then they saw Darien and shouted too.  
  
" He looks like a vampire!"  
  
" Anybody have any garlic?"  
  
" Quick, grab the cross off that table!" the audience shouted. The cast peeked out of their dressing rooms and gasped, the crew ran forward to see what was going on. Darien looked around, his face getting whiter by the second, breathing hard like a trapped animal. Serena stood next to him, frozen with fear. Not of Darien, but of what the people might do. What if they took him away?  
  
" Go!" she told him urgently, pushing him towards the backdoor.  
  
" No, don't let him go!"  
  
" Call the police!" people continued to shout. Serena ignored them and shoved the door open, throwing Darien outside and jumping after him. They ran from the school, down into the quiet neighborhood across the street. Darien waited as Serena caught her breath. He looked around, and spotted a white cat with orange patches by the road. It was sitting happily, watching the mice in the gutter. Like a vulture, Darien snatched up the cat and held it's thrashing body still. Serena watched as he carefully bit it's neck, and sucked it's blood.  
  
When he was finished, the cat was much calmer, and walked dizzily away. Darien sat down next to Serena on the curb, and wiped blood from his mouth.  
  
" Thank you." he said softly, staring at the ground. Serena leaned back, grinning.  
  
" No problem. I told you, I don't mind."  
  
" You know, you're pretty handy." He put an arm around her shoulders, and Serena moved closer.  
  
" Thanks. I guess." She laughed, and pressed her face into his shirt. He didn't stop her.  
  
Mena was sitting in the secret stairwell at school the next day, reading a book and eating lunch. She often skipped lunch because she didn't have anyone to eat it with. She heard the door on the downstairs open, she was sitting on the landing between the two staircases leading to the separate floors. Nobody appeared on the stairs.  
  
A single quarter flew through the air, landed noisely on the ground, and sat there. Mina stared at it, amused and bewildered. " Hello?" she called. No answer.  
  
A second quarter flew up, and this one hit Mina's head. " Hey, that one hit my face!" Mina was getting annoyed and more curious. A small blond girl popped out from behind the corner, her blue eyes wide.  
  
" I hit you?" she asked in a small voice. Mina smiled.  
  
" Hi Serena. No, you didn't hit me." Smiling, Serena hopped up the steps to Mena's level. " What class are you skipping?" Mena asked.  
  
" Math. Ick. And I'm not skipping, it's a bathroom break." Serena replied. " Can I tell you a secret?"  
  
" Yup."  
  
" You have to take it seriously. Lita thought I was lying when I told her."  
  
" Okay."  
  
" Darien's a vampire."  
  
" I figured. What happened the other night was pretty scary."  
  
" And he's taken my blood before."  
  
" Really?" Mena sat up, looking alarmed. " I thought you looked paler! Where?" Serena tugged at her collar, and revealed two sets of scarlet marks, almost like spider bites. Mena gasped.  
  
" Oh no!"  
  
" I don't mind so much. I think I actually like it." Serena smiled. Mena stared at her like she was crazy.  
  
" You like it?" she asked slowly. Serena nodded, feeling like she could laugh at any moment. She was sure her face was turning red, but she couldn't tell. Mena had a quizzical look on her face. She liked having her blood sucked? Didn't she know she could turn into a vampire, or even die? Serena giggled slightly.  
  
" Darien's not as bad as we thought. Remember how we thought he was creepy?" she laughed again. Mena didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. Her best friend was in love with a blood sucker.  
  
  
  
( Aargh, this one isn't quite so good. I'll try and update more often, but I have a lot of work to do!) 


	4. Author's Note

Author's Note  
  
Hey guys, it's me.  
  
I'm so sorry that I haven't updated this story in absolutely forever! (What has it been? Over a year, I know that.)  
  
I'm at this awful block in the road, and I can't figure out how to get past it. I've gone back to my memories about working behind the scenes, and I read Dracula to try and figure out where to go, but I can't remember what I had in mind for the story and I'm so so lost! Argh!  
  
I still want to finish the story, though, so I'm not going to say that it will never get done. I'm hoping to get inspired soon, by something, and be able to write another chapter.  
  
But what I'm getting to is that I'm stuck on this, and if anyone has any plot ideas or ideas on how to end the story or something, anything!, please email me and then we can co-write it! You guys have been patient and I owe it to you to finish the story, so please help me out. I don't bite!  
  
Well, from here I'll leave it to you.  
  
Love you all,  
  
HeadinthClouds 


End file.
